March news update

Welcome to the National Lottery Commission’s latest news update. If you would like more information on anything covered in the update or to add someone to our distribution list, contact us at info@natlotcomm.gov.uk.

On course for the best year ever for good causes

We are now three-quarters of the way through the financial year, and the National Lottery is well on track to raise more for good causes in a single year than ever before. This is the second full year of the third licence to operate the National Lottery which we awarded to Camelot in 2009. The new licence gives a greater proportion of ticket sales to good causes and more closely aligns Camelot’s commercial incentives to maximise sales with generating better returns for the good causes.

New figures show that since the start of the year, the National Lottery has generated over £1 billion for good causes; excluding unclaimed prizes and interest payments which by the end of the year will push the total even higher. Our most recent report also shows that so far £570 million has been generated for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic games, towards a target of £750 million. Click here to see the report in full.

Camelot commercial services proposal

We have decided that we cannot give consent to Camelot’s application to offer commercial services such as mobile phone top-ups, electronic bill payments and other similar services through National Lottery terminals.

We made our decision following a detailed consultation process, taking into account the views of interested parties and legal advice in a complicated and developing area of law. The advice we have received is that we cannot consent because of the EU/competition law risks the proposal raises. We considered whether the risks involved can reasonably be mitigated but concluded, based on the advice we have received, that they cannot.

More information and a statement of reasons setting out the rationale behind the decision is available on our website here: www.natlotcomm.gov.uk/commercial-services

British Gambling Prevalence Survey 2010

The Gambling Commission recently published new research on gambling participation in the UK. The results show that there has been a 2% increase in the number of people playing National Lottery draw games since the last survey in 2007. This result tallies with ours and Camelot’s evidence that more people playing more, each spending a small amount. We are pleased that although National Lottery games have high participation rates, players of National Lottery draw games are the least likely to be problem gamblers, and scratchcard players the third least likely.

The full report which gives a wealth of information about gambling participation, and the prevalence of problem gambling can be accessed here.

As the merger progresses, we will continue to work closely with the Gambling Commission about our research programmes and areas of mutual interest.